Love of the Sakura Petals
by ShinakaStar
Summary: AU In post-1800s Japan, Anzu is a poor teenager selling sakura flower necklaces to help buy medicine for her sick mother. Seto is a rich man, his goals on building new firms. When the two meet, will romance or hate bloom?
1. Baka Backstabber and Hate

Disclaimer: I do not yugioh, probably never will, it's kazuki takahashi's. don't bother suing me, most you could get is a freaking penny, even IF you were lucky. Eh, whatever.  
  
Up with another seto/anzu, or seto/tea romance!!!!! I'm into storylines that's takes place in other time zones, weirdly enough. If the storyline isn't related to history in japan, that's because due to my hatred of my history teacher, I chose not to listen to the bastard in class. Can't they get a better teacher!!!!???? Well, please review, and NO FLAMES!!!!!!!! Arigato!!!!! And thanks to a fic with info on how and what each character in the show calls each other, proper pet names for some chars can be established.  
  
Note:  
  
Anzu = Tea  
  
Jou(or Jounouchi, the full version) = Joey  
  
Honda = Tristan  
  
Ryou = the nice version of Bakura  
  
Shizuka = Serenity  
  
Thoughts ' '  
  
Talking " "  
  
Transition to different viewpoint * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
  
  
Love of the Sakura Petals  
  
] Chapter One, "Baka Backstabber And Hate" (sucky title for chap)  
  
'The busiest day of the year: the Sakura Festival. When noisy merchants barged in from all parts of Tokyo, and show off the latest things they got from other countries. How do I stand to bear it all these years, is a total mystery unknown to me.' Looking out of her stall full of dangling and carefully sewn Sakura flower necklaces, people swooped by her, mumbling things about selling some junk and stuff. Anzu liked the festival, but she hated the commotion it brought along with each year. Rude foreigners would always come by her booth and demanded silk, spices, and other things that her family couldn't even afford an ounce of. Though her mom had always said if the stall became too hard to handle, she'll take over, but Anzu wouldn't allow that, even to get away from the head-breaking shouts and demands of the foreigners. Her mom was way too ill to tend a shop of any kind. Ever since her father died of an incurable disease of some unknown kind, her mother had been gripped by depression and heartache. The depression had lowered the defenses of her immune system, and since then had a bout of many illnesses, minor mostly, but Anzu couldn't deny the truth any longer: her mother was dying; emotionally and physically. Medication to treat the disease was expensive; Anzu had just used all her savings to buy the little white pills, 10 in each bottle, that was sitting on the bureau next to her mom's bed with only one left in it.  
  
'No matter what, I have to take care of mom and try my best to earn money to buy medicine for her and take care of her the best I can. It's the only way.' All the necklaces had been painstakingly sewn by hand, the flowers first sweeped into baskets, then many hours of pruning the flowers and preserving, then sewing. Anzu looked down at her fingers, scarred from years of accidents with the needles.  
  
'Little scars are nothing compared to what mom must be feeling right now-'  
  
"Anzu, can I have a necklace please?" Raising her head to see who interrupted her thought, it was Jou, one of her friends.  
  
"Oh, okay. That'll be 20 yen. Who's it for, by the way, Jounouchi? And where's Shizuka and Yugi? I thought they were supposed to be with you in the park." Picking up a necklace, hung around a nail, Jounouchi dug into his black pouch, and pulled out a couple of coins.  
  
"They went to check out something at some market. The necklace's for Shizuka. Since she's only staying here for a couple of days, thought I get her a little something. Hey Anzu, you heard that some rich guy from the States is coming here? He's Japanese also. I can't believe he would betray his own kind hanging out with the foreigners!!!! (I'm not dissing white people; it's important to add to the fic since the time was based in 1800s Japan) The nerve of him!!! He's our age too; 17 and has a younger brother. Supposedly building a chain of enterprises around this area." Dumping the pile of coins on the small wooden counter, he frowned, and brushed his blond bangs aside.  
  
"An enterprise? But wouldn't that mean having to buy land and building the company on the-WHAT THE!!!!??? He's going to try to buy our land!!!!!!!???? Where are we going to live and-"  
  
"My point exactly!! Honda and me are arranging a protest against it, and so far nobody except for Yugi and my sister, believes me!!! You do believe me right?"  
  
"Well......I'm not sure what to believe........Are you sure this information is true? Remember the last time you told us that we were going to war and you made all of us stranded in the general's palace for TWO DAYS? If Yugi hadn't thought of the idea to disguise ourselves as soldiers, we might be already executed for trespassing!" The blonde simply rolled his eyes at that memory and took the necklace out of his friend's hands.  
  
"Fine. I made ONE mistake, but that was years ago!! Anzu, if you do decide to believe me sooner or later, talk to me and the others about it, and we'll form a plan to kick the backstabber out of Japan!! Bye!!!!!!" The girl just sweatdropped, as her friend went rushing through the many crowds of people.  
  
'And to think he's actually my friend.' Sighing, she started to yell "Sakura necklaces for sale, 20 yen each!!" as customers interested in the franchises of the Sakura Festival, started to line up in front of her.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
In the States..........  
  
"Mokuba, the ship is waiting!!!!" Seto checked his gold pocket watch; exactly 4 minutes till boarding time, and Mokuba was still trying to haggle with an merchant on a certain toy he wanted.  
  
"I'm only going to pay one silver dollar!!!! Take it or leave it!!!!!!!" The younger brother was in an elaborately decorated kimono, shaking a silver coin in front of the merchant's eyes. The man only groaned in frustration at the demand, and started to move his cart of things to another area.  
  
"Hey, wait up!!!!!! You're not going that easily!!!" He started to chase the merchant around, yelling death threats if he didn't stop running away from him.  
  
"Mokuba!!!! I'll buy you a toy in Japan!!!! Just leave the man alone!!!" Seto looked at his pocket watch again. Only two minutes left. He knew he shouldn't had taught Mokuba how to haggle for cheaper prices on the things he buy. It didn't really matter. He could just buy a whole state and still have money left over.  
  
The ten-year old stopped at his tracks and quickly ran back to his brother.  
  
"Really, nii-sama?(honorable older brother or just older brother)" Taking his older brother's hand as the two walked to an huge ship, Seto smiled one of his rare smiles to Mokuba.  
  
"Hai. You know I would never break a promise." His face turning back to his usual frown, it addressed the slowly departing ship for Japan.  
  
"But right now, we got to get on the ship. We'll talk later." And the two ran to the big luxury liner, hand in hand.  
  
  
  
  
  
TBC (ain't it suspenseful? Well yeah right!)  
  
  
  
A/N: oh god, that got to be my WORST series I ever written!!!!! Stupid, messed up alternate universe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As usual, love doesn't happen overnight or at a glance (I don't believe in love at first sight), so I apologize for the usual lack of romance, as seto and anzu didn't even meet yet; they're in two different countries!!!! Oh well, wait for next chappie, and I gotta at least have over 7 reviews for me to write the next chap. If not, I'll just discontinue or continue it for fun. Which is 20 percent chance of happening, but who knows what might happen? Ja ne, for now!!!!!!!  
  
~ ~ * Shinaka * ~ ~ 


	2. Memories and Arrival

Disclaimer: I don't own yugioh, though I wish I do, but I'm broke and it belongs to mr.takahashi. lawyers, stay out of my way.  
  
Hi there!!!!! Thanx for a lot of reviews and keep them coming for this chappie!!!!! Ori, I also HATE mushy stuff too. I'm into complicated love triangle stuff, and I absolutely WON'T add any fluff, unless gangsters tie me up, put a gun to my head and make me. But like that will ever happen. Oh and I never read the book pride and prejudice, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say the fic be like pride and prejudice. Oh well, enjoy this chappie and REVIEW!!!!!! absolutely NO FLAMES!!!!!!  
  
Note:  
  
Anzu = Tea  
  
Jounouchi = Joey  
  
Ryou = the nice version of Bakura  
  
Honda = Tristan  
  
Shizuka = Serenity  
  
Seto will be referred to as "baka backstabber" from Anzu when she meets him later on  
  
Thoughts ' '  
  
Talking " "  
  
Transition to next viewpoint * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
  
  
Love of the Sakura Petals  
  
  
  
Chapter Two, "Memories and Arrival"  
  
  
  
"Anzu, get me my reading glasses. I want to read today's newspaper." A frail woman with short preppy hair, perhaps around the age of 30 or 40, had her arm high above her head, maybe reaching for the light of heaven.  
  
"But Mom, let me read it to you. I don't want you to tire your eyes out." Anzu, who was now home after a day of work and constant yelling, was by her mother's bed where she had been bedridden in for the past few months, moaning and grieving over her father's death.  
  
"That's what your dad would say to me. Why.....why did he have to die!!!!!?????" Her mom started to cry into her blanket. Her former lavender sparkling eyes were replaced by pale shades of red, bloodshot and puffy, and Anzu couldn't do anything to comfort her. Her mom would only cry more and would talk about how her father had a caring and kind heart, and how he died just by having a heart like that. The 17-year old girl felt down.  
  
"Mom, please stop crying. The doctors said they couldn't do anything to save him. We can't live in the past forever."  
  
"Those baka doctors!!!!! Of course they can do something!! They were just too lazy to try!!!! They only wanted our money!!!" Anzu sighed deeply. Denial. It was still hard for her to chew on the fact that the doctors couldn't do a single thing to help her husband. Therefore she always shouted death threats at them whenever she can.  
  
"Mom, what they were saying is true. Apparently the foreigners calls this disease, 'cancer'. Even they don't have a cure for it, and they built all those contraptions to make life for them more easier without working at all." But her mother had reverted to putting her hands over her ears, not wanting to hear the gruesome truth, and more tears tearing down her cheeks.  
  
"I don't want to hear it!!!! Leave me alone!!!!!!" Doing as her mother told her, as not to make her any more sad, she walked off to her room, sliding the rickety sliding door shut behind her, and sitting down on her pale blue mat.  
  
Her mother, Sakuya Izumi, used to be the happiest mother in the whole country of Japan. A talented seamstress and former artist, she resorted to making beautiful kimonos which were treasured as precious heirlooms, and making Sakura flower necklaces when she married her father, Kuato Mazaki. Anzu remembered the times when she would take her and her friends to the park for a weekly picnic, and how the smell of steamed dumplings would tingle the tips of their very noses. And she also remembered that fateful day when her dad died. His doctor had been perched by him, checking his pulse, his expression especially grim and morose. Her dad's skin had turned pale in the last few weeks of his life, his azure orbs looking ever so lifeless. He had called Anzu to his other side when the doctor announced that he didn't had long to live, his loudest he can muster in an whisper.  
  
* * * ~Flashback~ * * *  
  
Anzu looked at her father with puffy vermilion, as Kuato Mazaki began to gasp out his last words.  
  
"My daughter......please take care of your mother......she is precious and I don't want her to die early like I am right now.......and Anzu........don't grieve for me........you can't always live in the past.......you got to move on with life.......even in the hardest of times.......remember that, will you......." The word still lingering from his lips, his eyes closing shut, as he welcomed his death and journey to the heavens, and the mother and daughter screamed in agony. It was too horrific to be true. Anzu pinched herself repeatedly, trying to believe that she'll snap out of this nightmare, and be back in her blue mat in her room. But it didn't work at all, and she cried and sobbed as tears dropped onto her father's face, lifeless and a corpse.  
  
* * * ~Flashback End~ * * *  
  
Back to the Present.....  
  
Anzu started to cry at that memory. It was when everything in her family snapped in two. Mother started to neglect tending her shop and stopped paying bills, meaning constant visits from the debt collectors and their anger of having no money from the end of their visits. They threatened to sell their home if they didn't pay them soon, and Anzu took over the shop. But she never made as much money as her mom would have when she had control of the booth, meaning there was never enough money to pay the collectors. And in addition to that, food costs and medicine. Her friends offered to help her, but she couldn't accept their help. Anzu didn't want to impose on her friends and take advantage of their generosity.  
  
'Oh God, why do I even bother to live this kind of life?! And if what Jounouchi says is true, I have to also prevent our home from getting sold again!!! Stupid backstabber!!!! Betray his own kind!!!!' She pounded on the poorly polished floor in anger.  
  
"Don't cry Anzu. Dad said not to grieve for him, and I won't. And if that baka does come to this city of Tokyo, I'm gonna make him wish that he had never go against his own people!!!!!"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
A Few Days Later at Docking Port of Tokyo.......  
  
"We're finally in Japan!!!!!! Yay!!!!!" Mokuba was running around yelling happily at the news his older brother had just given him. He had only been to Japan once, but he had gone there when he was in his phase of the "terrible twos", one memory that Seto didn't really like to talk about, and one that Mokuba couldn't really remember. Seto held his hand so his brother wouldn't get lost in the many crowds of people that was getting abroad and out the ship.  
  
"Yes, Mokuba. Now come on, we got to speak to a representative of the company I'm working with, to build more of their businesses." The little brother quitted his dancing around, but his face had a grin plastered on it that made Seto want to laugh, but he kept his cool. He, Seto Kaiba, never laughed; not even around his brother, and he planned to keep it that way.  
  
Bodyguards that he had hand picked out from the States, were all around him and Mokuba, positioning their eyes at all angles to make sure nobody dared to get the siblings. The many Japanese from Tokyo simply looked at them with disgust and hatred, as they passed by them, whispering to their cohorts about rumors on the rich teenager and his fellow foreigner friends. Seto rolled his eyes at them. He was used to the treatment, as he received the same thing too in the States. Some of the foreigners had figured that the Japanese were evil and were scum, and constantly spat at him as he strolled by with his brother.  
  
'Pathetic fools. They think they can try to drive me out of the country when I was born, and raised in. Think again.' Shooting a death glare to everybody he could see, they quickly strayed from the area, which was complete satisfaction, as he normally didn't like a lot people around him. They all gave Seto a headache.  
  
'Much better.'  
  
  
  
TBC  
  
  
  
A/N: I was planning for this chap to go another way, but I decided to go with this one since it was so much better!!! Please review, with NO FLAMES, while I go churn up the next chappie!!!!!!! I apologize for the way Mokuba acted in chap 1. Completely OOC for his own good, so I reverted him back to the 10-year old (around there) kid he was. Like it better? And now, ja ne!!!!!!!!!! till next chap!!!!!  
  
~ ~ * Shinaka * ~ ~ 


	3. Seeing Seto

Disclaimer: I don't yugioh, leave me alone, I ain't did nothing to all ya lawyers out there........  
  
Sorry for not updating for a long time, but I'm completely swamped with school and S.S.A.T. prep. Thanks for reviews as usual, and seto shaped cookies for you all. ^_______^ read and enjoy this new chappie!!!!!!! R/R AND NO FLAMES!!!!!!!!!  
  
Note:  
  
Anzu = Tea  
  
Jounouchi = Joey  
  
Shizuka = Serenity  
  
Honda = Tristan  
  
Ryou = the nice version of Bakura  
  
Thoughts ' '  
  
Talking " "  
  
Transition to next viewpoint * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
  
  
Love of the Sakura Petals  
  
Chapter Three, "Seeing Seto"  
  
"He's here, Anzu!!!!! I told ya I was right, I told ya!!!!!!!!!" Jounouchi Katsuya had crashed into the sliding doors of the Mazaki household, yelling, the instant he was told by gossipers that the "backstabber" was in the docking port, and he had rushed through many people and streets to tell Anzu the news. She dropped the Sakura necklace she was making, her mouth agape with shock and horror.  
  
"Na-Na-Nani??!! (means "what" in japanese) What you told me is actually true!!???" She couldn't believe it at all. Anzu had wanted the rumor to be fake, and yet.......it didn't turn out the way she wanted it to. Biting her lip, she struggled not to cry in front of Jounouchi. She had to try not to get her family's property get sold again!!!!!!  
  
"You want to go with me to the port??? I'm going to punch him so hard, he wished he'd never messed with the likes of the Japanese people!!!!!!!!" Making a fist with his left hand, Anzu stood up from her sitting position, her tears successfully held back in place.  
  
"Al right. I want to get to get a look at this baka and spit at his face!!!!" (ooh, anzu's getting temperamental)  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Still at the Docking Port.......Very BIG Docking Port......  
  
"Seto, why is everybody looking at us like that?" Having noticed the crowds of people that were around him and his older brother, Mokuba started to felt uncomfortable. He was used to stares like that in the States, but he never expected to be welcomed this way in his supposedly native home.  
  
"Ignore them. The other Japanese simply don't appreciate their own kind hanging out with people unlike them." Seto answered, quite bluntly. Mokuba look a little reassured at his statement, but Seto could feel how tense his little brother was. To be discriminated against when they absolutely didn't do anything but went out and decided to be unconventional, to the disgust of the foreigners and the Japanese. It wasn't at all fair, but nobody cared about them. They only cared that different people were to be unrightfully punished and that was that.  
  
"Look at them. Those two are the very scum of this earth!!!!"  
  
"I heard that they were the reincarnations of the devil."  
  
"They don't deserve to be among us. They had just destroyed the very morale of the Japanese!!!!"  
  
Whisperings ran amuck in the crowds and Mokuba's hand clutched Seto's even more. The very tone of the peasants made his skin crawl.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Slow down, Jounouchi!!!! I can't catch up with you!!!!"  
  
"Well, who told you to wear those sandals!!!!!!! God, girls are so weird!!" Jounouchi and Anzu had been running for the last 5 minutes to the port, with Anzu especially fatigued. Her mother had always told her a lady must never run; they must walk in a graceful way, left foot over the right. So she had never run much in her life.  
  
"It's not my fault, girls weren't even supposed to be running in the first place!!!! But are we there yet?"  
  
"Almost. Just a few more minutes." So the two veered towards the left, made a nauseating spin around the corner-street, and they were at the docking port. Panting, Anzu gasped for precious gasps of air, refilling her lungs. Jounouchi didn't looked the least tired; perhaps this was from the years he had spent racing with the other neighborhood boys, under tables where silk cloth was being sold, and over and through the crowded streets of busy Tokyo.  
  
"Where is the baka, Jounouchi?" Walking next to her friend, she stared into the huge crowds surrounding the supposed idiot.  
  
"Too much people, let's get closer!!!!!! I'm going to beat the daylights out of him!!!!!" Grabbing Anzu's right wrist, Jounouchi dragged the girl and again, ran to the scene, his tight grip on her making her joints burst up in pain. Even with the pain escalating to her head, thoughts still manage to make their way to it.  
  
'I hope Jounouchi beats him up. And I hope he goes back to the States and stay there!!! And I hope-' Jounouchi stopped at the middle of the crowd, bringing a complete halt to Anzu's thoughts, but while she rubbed her hurting wrist, she saw.........HIM. Her mouth gaped at the sight of the backstabber, Seto Kaiba, chestnut hair, sapphire eyes and all.  
  
'He's KAWAII (cute)......wait, what am I thinking!!!!??? This is the guy that's planning to take my family's land away from us!!! He's not kawaii, he's a pompous jerk that only thinks about himself!!!!!'  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Get away from Mr. Seto Kaiba, or you're in for it." The bodyguards held up their shiny, slate-colored bayonets at the townsfolk, its luster alluring to the eye. But Seto, who only came to Japan with no intention of violence, but intention to gain the trust of the Japanese business men and from the ordinary villagers, to build a glorious new enterprise on their land, quickly signaled to them, waiving the idea to harm anybody. But he didn't waived the right that they can push people that were getting in their way, and the bodyguards used with glee. Their pale-white arms knocked people against the side, as if they were simply nothing but inferior little cockroaches, one when you can torture them to death, or simply squish the insect. One of the arms swept up against the last batch of people, when suddenly, a hand grabbed one of the bodyguards.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing here!? This is our home and you; you stupid baka, don't deserve to just come out here and just build your companies here!!!!" Seto looked at the opposing person, apparently another teen around his age with messy blond hair and especially long bangs that reached up to his eyes. He had a strong intuition that the guy was going to be tough to handle. After all, the person was Jounouchi. Mokuba clung to his big brother, seeing that a fight would take place. The bodyguard didn't answer to Jounouchi's complaints and instead smirked. And body slammed him to the ground.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"JOUNOUCHI!!!!!!" Anzu had seen the whole scene with Jounouchi trying to gang up on the bodyguard, up to the part when the foreigner grinned and slammed her friend into the ground. Running as fast as she can, not caring at all if her feet was going to have blisters on it; she had to tend for Jounouchi. And the sight of him at the ground when she arrived made her heart lurched. Anzu had never liked to see her friends get hurt and in such a barbaric way......she was going to bash this baka backstabber all right. Bruises were forming on his arms and legs, plus cuts with blood gushing out of it and leaning over him, she grabbed some cloth from her pocket and wiped the blood away gently. Jounouchi only peered at Anzu from his lying position, being not able to move and a tint of blush on his cheeks. Anzu looked towards the baka just standing behind her, and she grew enraged.  
  
'How can he allow to have Jounouchi hurt like this?????!!!!! He was supposed to be one of us!!!!!! Apparently he made it so he was never one of us, but a foreigner.'  
  
  
  
TBC  
  
A/N: omg!! The suspense!! The drama!!! Oh, never mind. I forgot to put this in, but this fic is strictly seto/anzu/jounouchi love triangle. The yugi/anzu/seto love triangle is used too oftenly, and I do like to be original. which is why I put in jounouchi blushing. Review for what couple you want for this fic, seto/anzu, or jounouchi/anzu. I perfer seto/anzu over jounouchi/anzu, but I do think the coupling quite cute. 8 reviews for me to post up next chappie!!!!!!!!!!!! NO FLAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And ja ne.  
  
~ ~ * Shinaka * ~ ~ 


End file.
